The Nucleic Acids Research Facilities (NARF) resource, established at VCU in 1986, consists of four service cores and one support core. The four service cores are: 1) the Gene Synthesis Core (GSC);2) the Real Time PCR Core (RTPCRC);3) the DMA Sequencing Core (DSC);and 4) the DMA Microarray Core (MAC). The Support Core is composed of a small bioinformatics suite connected to the main Bioinformatics Computational Core Labs via gigabit Ethernet. (All of the NARF activities are provided at below commercial cost. Most of the services are provided with shorter turn around times than commercial providers as well. Thus, DMA oligos can be provided in less than 24 hours, sequencing has a 1-2 day turnaround, and RT PCR has a 1-3 day turnaround (depending on the experiment). MicroArrays are run weekly and usually there is currently only a minimal queue for access. Turnaround time is minimal (a few days to a week to get the data).